On the macrofinancial determinants of life and non-life insurance premiums.

This paper tests potential determinants of the development of the insurance sector. Using a rich dataset for 24 European countries spanning two decades, we identify a set of macrofinancial factors that are the most robust predictors of growth of gross premiums in the life and non-life insurance sectors. We show that both life and non-life premiums co-move with the business cycle and are positively related to higher savings and a more developed financial system. In addition, we provide new evidence on the role of market concentration and price effects. We find that market concentration matters only for life insurance, whereas the price channel is significant only for non-life insurance. From a policy perspective, our empirical estimates can be used to refine the existing macroprudential stress tests of the insurance sector.

The World Spider Trait database: a centralized global open repository for curated data on spider traits.

Spiders are a highly diversified group of arthropods and play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems as ubiquitous predators, which makes them a suitable group to test a variety of eco-evolutionary hypotheses. For this purpose, knowledge of a diverse range of species traits is required. Until now, data on spider traits have been scattered across thousands of publications produced for over two centuries and written in diverse languages. To facilitate access to such data, we developed an online database for archiving and accessing spider traits at a global scale. The database has been designed to accommodate a great variety of traits (e.g. ecological, behavioural and morphological) measured at individual, species or higher taxonomic levels. Records are accompanied by extensive metadata (e.g. location and method). The database is curated by an expert team, regularly updated and open to any user. A future goal of the growing database is to include all published and unpublished data on spider traits provided by experts worldwide and to facilitate broad cross-taxon assays in functional ecology and comparative biology. Database URL:https://spidertraits.sci.muni.cz/.

Identification of potentially toxic compounds in complex extracts of environmental samples using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and multivariate data analysis.

In this study, we examined 31 samples of varying chemical composition, including samples of soils from gasworks, coke production sites, and sites where wood preservatives were heavily used; ash and soot from municipal solid waste incinerators; antiskid sand; and dust from areas with heavy road traffic. The samples were comprehensively chemically characterized, especially their polycyclic aromatic compound contents, using gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry, whereas their biological effects were assessed using dehydrogenase activity, root growth (Hordeum vulgare), reproduction of springtails (Folsomia candida), algal growth (Desmodesmus subspicatus), germinability (Sinapis alba), Vibrio fischeri, DR-CALUX, and Ames Salmonella assays. The number of compounds detected in the samples ranged from 123 to 527. Using the multivariate regression technique of partial-least-squares projections to latent structures, it was possible to find individual compounds that exhibited strong correlations with the different biological responses. Some of the results, however, indicate that a broader chemical characterization may be needed to identify all the compounds that may cause the measured biological responses.